Do Machines Make History?

That machines make history in some sense-that the level of technology has a direct bearing on the human drama-is of course obvious. That they do not make all of history, however that word be defined, is equally clear. The challenge, then, is to see if one can say something systematic about the matter, to see whether one can order the problem so that it becomes intellectually manageable. To do so calls at the very beginning for a careful specification of our task. There are a number of important ways in which machines make history that will not concern us here. For example, one can study the impact of technology on the political course of history, evidenced most strikingly by the central role played by the technology of war. Or one can study the effect of machines on the social attitudes that underlie historical evolution: one thinks of the effect of radio or television on